Noiseless or double coil pickups?

TenLeftFingers

As far as I understand it, double coil pickups removed noise, but now the noisless pickups manage to do the same thing with a single coil setup, giving you that nice single coil sound (personal opinion, don't eat me )

Is there any more to is? I hear Eric Clapton plays switched from double coil to noisless. If it's good enough for him goddamn it!!

Giblet

A double coil (Humbucker) would need your guitar to be routed so it would fit. A noiseless pickup does the job nearly as well, but can be just replaced directly without alterations to the body. There are also many single coil sized humbuckers that work as well. Clapton uses lace sensors, they use a sensor technology that cut out the hum associated with single coil pickups but at the same time - they did not sound like a strat!! so you will have a clapton sound rather than a strat sound. The different colours tell you about the quality and sound of the pickup.




Seymour duncan make Hotrails (black) and Coolrails (white) which are essentially humbuckers which are the same size as a single coil. The Hotrail is a high output pickup, which can be bought for any position, but is usually used in the bridge.
The Coolrail is a medium output pickup, that has a more blues sound, and is usually used in the neck or middle.

TenLeftFingers

Thanks for that Giblet. I have a strat with 3 pickups, giving me 5 positions. It's the bottom most pickup I want to replace (the trebley one).

From what you're saying, either a hotrail or a noiseless pickup will do the job. Do the hotrails also stary from the strat sound?

I think I'll go for the noisless, as they ar only €75.

Thanks for the info,
merlin

Giblet

I have a Fender Strat with Hotrails in the bridge. They're great for lead guitar, and sound great with overdrive. Cost about 150 euro though, and they might be a bit heavy. Good for classic Led Zep style rock.

RicardoSmith

The hotrails outout is a lot higher than the single coils so you may find its a lot louder. It can be pain switching from the "rails" to a single coil because of this. Though I loved the Hot rails myself.

Giblet

You can adjust the height of each pickup, so they're fairly even. And if you using the Hotrail for distortion only, it won't be as loud as a single coil played clean.

RicardoSmith

On my quitar this meant the singles where all the way out and the rails all the way in. Looked a bit naff IMO. Even then the rails was still louder, clean or distorted. Though I don't get why the latter should make a difference, as its the strength of the signal that output that makes it "loud" so to speak. In fact the one with the higher ouput will also distort more.

TenLeftFingers

Everyone seems to be happy with their hotrails allright. I'm wary of changing my sound though. Due to unforseen circumstance (surgery on a 60's laney head was not a success), I use a peavy bass head through a marshall 4 X 10. These are both well over 40 years old

But I've managed to get a good sound. The bass amps back then were not as 'specialized' as guitar amps.

Giblet

Yes well a higher output pickup will cause distortion, but having it lower will lower the signal level, reducing the effect. I only use the hotrail on clean for maybe one or two songs. Paradise City intro sounds great. Be wary though, I noticed that after i replaced my bridge pickup, the sound from the guitar when both the bridge and middle were active (position 4), it had a sound similar to the old bridge single coil pickup. So if you liked the old position 4 sound, you will miss out, but tbh, it sounds shit.
This happens because instead of cancelling out the hum due to reverse polarisation. It just cancels out one of the hotrails coils, allowing the other one to be more prominent in the sound, and it buzzes.

RicardoSmith

The in betweens on mine were a bit odd too.

TenLeftFingers

I use position 5 and 4 the most. (Don't use any of the others actually). Looks like noisless it the way to go. If I have that problem, i'll have to get another one for the middle pickup.

Don1

The rails will totally change the sound. The Strat trebbly sound will be replced by a lot more low and low mid. It also boils down to what you want to play. If clean is your bag the rails is not good unless you have a compressor as it will start overdriving your pre amp at much lower volumes. However if you like raw power it's a must. It even made my sh*tty Squire sound good!!

TenLeftFingers

I'm after getting a Seymore Duncan JB Jr. It's for the bridge position. I'm going to fit it today. A mate had it in his old Fender. If I don't like the sound I'll just get a noisless one.